A Theory of Family
by Triscribe
Summary: Blade of Marmora member Kexra crash-lands on a backwater planet after a mission gone wrong; she is found and looked after by a native lifeform named Allen Kogane.
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: I so don't need to be starting anything new, but I don't want to just post this on tumblr. In other news, while I had been convinced the Weblum-Galra was Keith's Mom back in S2, I've since shifted to the sibling theory instead, which is where this fic is headed. So, if you ship them or are holding tight to the old headcanon, good for you! You may not enjoy this story, but that's okay - you are by no means required to read it. :)_

 _For those of you who_ do _continue onward, I hope to get some good reviews, people! Share your enthusiasm with me! It gets stuff written faster!_

 _-Tri_

 _P.S. There will be occasional illustrations posted to my tumblr account of the same username, which I'll let y'all know about so you can get as much pleasure out of seeing 'em as I do drawing 'em. No, without any additional holdups, I present:_

 ** _A Theory of Family_**

Chapter One

In hindsight, turning his back to the supposedly-unconscious alien had been a mistake.

Allen didn't realize it at first, of course, as he was still fumbling to rip his spare bedsheets into more bandages, all the ones from the med kit having been already used up. The first moment he became aware that his surprise houseguest had woken up was when she kicked him into the far wall.

"Ji'shus fa'nevra?" He shook his head and blinked upward, blearily recognizing that the alien woman was standing over him, scowling. Even with half her sleek form covered with bloody gauze and cloth, she looked ready to fight - and win. "Ji'tarus keh sammit?!"

"...What?"

The alien's glower deepened. "Ghesh'tu da'jirinti, fa'aktel!"

"Okay, just, hold your horses," Allen groaned, slowly rolling over and shifting backward to sit on his rear. "Now. In case you haven't picked up on it, ma'am, I can't understand a word you're saying."

He got an arched eyebrow in response, but nothing more.

"Hn. Don't suppose _you_ can understand _me,_ by any chance."

Surprisingly enough, that question gained him a sigh and a nod. The alien even went so far as to ease her stance into something less combat-ready. Allen frowned when the movement caused some more lavender streaks to flow down from her side.

"Looks like you re-opened that gash along your ribcage - I'm gonna have to try and sew it up again- Hey now!" He protested when the alien snarled at his attempt to stand. "If you really do know what I'm saying, then you know I only want to help! Now I've done the best I can to tend to your injuries, and I'll be drug through the desert by a crazed horse before I let all that work go to waste!"

His outburst caused both his guest's eyebrows to shoot up. A moment later, she appeared to grudgingly accept his honesty, and moved to sit down on the edge of the cot.

With slow and careful movements, Allen retrieved the sheet he'd been ripping earlier along with his greatly-diminished med kit, and went to kneel beside the alien. He did his best not to grow nervous under the gaze of her yellow eyes, instead focusing on peeling away and replacing the bandage over her largest injury.

"...Da'busir," she muttered after a while. Pausing in his work, Allen peered up at her face, trying to figure out what had just been said. The gratitude in her eyes was enough of a clue for him to grin and reply:

"You're welcome."

 _Kexra's Daibazali:_

 _Ji'shus fa'nevra - Who are you?_

 _Ji'tarus keh sammit - What is this place?_

 _Ghesh'tu da'jirinti, fa'aktel - Answer my questions, you ingrate!_

 _Da'busir - My thanks_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Scowling at the block of wood held tightly in his fist, Allen again scraped his pocket knife down its length. Another thin layer peeled away, yet still, the wood refused to reveal what shape laid within.

"Ji'tarus galdir keh khit?"

Allen nearly jumped out of his skin. Standing only inches away from him was his alien guest, who peered at the block in confusion.

"Ye gods, woman, don't _do_ that!" Only after he took a few deep breaths to calm himself did the man answer what he thought to be her question. "I'm carving. Hobby of mine, when I need to take my mind off of other things for a while."

Slowly, the alien nodded. She then motioned at his hands. "Kreen'tu."

"Is that what you call it? Kreen-too?"

"Vorkoz Zal," his guest sighed, rolling her eyes. "Ji'nashus suun dan bais'kin izin kah khit daib ah kiriskan?"

"I guess not, then."

Huffing, she nodded her head in agreement, before mimicking his carving movements with her hands. " _Kreen'tu."_

Allen blinked at her. "You... Want me to teach you?" He got a shrug. "Alright, well, I'm using a softwood at the moment - easier to cut into with my little knife. The inner grain of each piece is always different, and usually after peeling away the outer layers I can get a sense of what shape is hiding within, ready to come to life."

The man carved as he spoke, relaxing despite his guest's close scrutiny. After explaining the basics, he fell silent, just letting her observe while he worked. It wasn't long until a shape did emerge - easy flowing lines turning into distinct limbs tucked against a smooth body, the thick neck and head raised above them.

Once Allen put the final touches on the curving figure of the tail, he held it out for his awed audience's inspection. "Here on Earth, this is what we call a 'lion'. Or, well, 'lioness' actually, since I didn't give her a mane."

"Gapurin," the alien breathed, a clawed finger hovering over the wood.

"You can have it, if you want."

Instantly, she took it from Allen's offering hands, to turn it every which way in the light and study each detail. In the meantime, he reached for the bag sitting by his feet to pull out another wood block. When his guest noticed this, she made an excited noise, grabbing at the belt slung over her shoulder. Allen was hard-pressed not to laugh when she pulled out her sword, the one his guest had refused to relinquish once she'd recovered from her injuries enough to start carrying again.

His amusement died away into shock when the weapon glowed, suddenly shrinking down into a handheld knife.

"...Well alright then," he said, placing a block into her outstretched hand. The alien carefully set down her lioness, then sat on the dusty ground with an expectant expression. Chuckling, Allen moved to crouch beside her and made sure she held both blade and wood correctly.

It took more than a little work, considering her first few tries were made attempting to force the carving to take the shape she wanted, but soon enough she was finding the inner forms and letting them come to the surface.

"That's great!" Allen exclaimed over her fourteenth creation - some sort of flower, the likes of which he'd never seen, but the details of which were very well done. "We'll turn you into a master carver in no time, or my name isn't Allen Kogane!"

His grin faded a bit as his guest tilted her head at him, looking surprised. Before he could ask what was wrong, it was her turn to surprise him.

"Al-en Ko-gan-eh," she said, reaching up a hand to place on his chest. Then she pulled it back to set on her own. "Kexra. Da'nisir keh Kexra."

He frowned, puzzling over it for a moment before the inevitable lightbulb went off. "Kexra? That's your name?"

She nodded, and they smiled at one another.

The lioness and the flower sat side by side on the ground between them.

 _Kexra's Daibazali:_

 _Ji'tarus galdir keh khit? - What action is this?_

 _Kreen'tu - Continue_

 _Vorkoz Zal - (A plea to the mythical Galra progenitor)_

 _Ji'nashus suun dan bais'kin izin kah khit daib ah kiriskan - Why did I have to land on this planet of idiots?_

 _Gapurin - Beautiful_

 _Da'nisir keh Kexra - My name is Kexra_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Where did you come from, anyway?"

Even though they were softly murmured, Allen's words still caught Kexra's attention from across the room. She sighed, setting aside her current carving in order to grab a handful of others to bring to him. Curious, Allen scooted over on the couch for his guest to sit as well, and she returned the courtesy by slouching so that they were of a more even height.

First, the alien held up a block of wood shaped like some sort of crystal - or so Allen had assumed it was when she made it. "Marmora," Kexra said.

"Mar-mora? That's your home?"

She grimaced, holding up a second carving, one of her sword done in miniature.

"A... homebase, then? Some kind of military post?" In the couple of weeks that Kexra had been sharing his home, Allen had come to the conclusion that she was a member of _some_ sort of military; her weaponry and instinctive reactions to sudden movements or loud noises made that all too obvious.

The alien nodded. She then showed him a carving that was actually a design etched into the wood, and hissed at it. " _Galra."_

Allen's eyebrows shot up. "You're at war with something called 'Galra'?"

Again, Kexra grimaced. Setting the carvings aside, she pantomimed a large circle, then a smaller one inside it, followed by furtive glances to either side and a stabbing motion.

Allen stared at her.

After a length of time during which Kexra stared back, he stood, stepped over to the only bookcase in the room, and plucked out from between two survival guides an old photo.

"This was my dad," he told her, bringing the picture over. "Those folks he's standing with were his squad back in the Nuke War - they didn't do frontline combat like most others. Their job was to act as a band of guerilla fighters, to go behind enemy lines to commit acts of sabotage, intelligence gathering, and recruitment among the civilian population. It was dangerous, but the sort of thing that provided enough harassment to the other side that when the time came, they were more willing to sit down to the global peace talks. Unsung heroes, we tend to call them."

Kexra's eyes were gleaming.

"Seems like that's the sort of thing you do, too."

The light in her gaze died down a little, and Kexra sighed. She placed a hand on her chest. "Da'nevra Galra."

"...Spy, then?" Allen hazarded. "Dad did a little spying too, when the need called for it. They had a double agent who worked for them from the inside of the enemy camp, as well." He gave his guest a lopsided grin when she looked at him with gratitude.

She motioned for him to return to the couch, then held up the next carving in her little pile. This one was of a person, who looked a bit like Kexra herself but with bigger ears. It was also decidedly male, at least by Earth standards.

Allen ignored the pained stabbing sensation in his heart when he asked, "Husband?"

Kexra blinked at him for a moment before she burst out laughing.

Eventually, after a lot of demands from Allen to explain what was so funny, she recovered enough control of herself to gasp out two words. "Thace - da'mosrim!" Another bout of cackling made her indecipherable for a good long while after that.

"Ridiculous aliens," Allen muttered.

" _Fa'nevra_ kuruskin," Kexra snorted back, around a mouthful of giggles.

"I'm not even going to try and guess what that means, 'cause I'm _quite_ sure I wouldn't like the answer."

"Pos, fan ghin posik."

"Hmph."

 _Kexra's Daibazali:_

 _Da'nevra Galra - I am Galra_

 _Da'mosrim - My brother_

 _Fa'nevra kuruskin - You are ridiculous_

 _Pos - No_

 _Fan ghin posik - You would not_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

For two months, Allen and Kexra settled into a steady rhythm. As the alien slowly healed and regained her strength, she began doing more exercises, as well as chores around the shack. In addition to regular maintenance of his home, Allen usually took day trips out into the desert to check the boundaries of his property, keeping his eyes peeled for any signs of campers in distress, animals acting unusually, and of course good wood to bring home for carving. When Kexra began to accompany him, the trips got a lot more enjoyable, not just because of the wonderful way her eyes lit up whenever they encountered something new.

Though Allen refused to consider the implications of it, he had to accept that he was coming to love his companion. The grace inherent of all her physical movements, the humor that would glint in her golden eyes whenever he went out of his way to be silly, even just the way the two of them would sit together, silent except for the rasp of metal on wood.

He couldn't imagine life without her.

And that was the problem.

For as long as he could, Allen avoided taking Kexra anywhere near the place where her ship had crashed, and she never brought it up either. But after the third evening in a row of him seeing her sadly study the carving of 'Thace,' he gave in to the inevitable.

Kexra noticeably stiffened when they got close to the crash site, and it took her several long minutes to get off the hovercraft when Allen brought it to a stop only yards away from the twisted wreck.

Dark purple metal was further darkened by soot, any detailing on the hull of the ship crunched to the point of being unrecognizable as such. Allen stood by pensively as his friend walked a circuit around the ship, Kexra occasionally poking at something for a moment before moving on.

When her inspection was complete, the alien ducked inside the gaping hole that Allen had pulled her out of months before. He twitched, wanting to go after her just in case, but restrained himself for the couple of minutes it took Kexra to retrieve whatever she'd gone after. The diamond-shaped piece of alien technology looked like nothing he'd ever seen on Earth.

"What is it?"

Kexra didn't answer him, still staring at the device with a deep frown.

It wasn't long until she remounted the hovercraft, obviously ready to leave. Allen couldn't help but breathe a small sigh of relief that his companion wasn't interested in attempting to make the wreck space worthy again, even if he was concerned by the device she had retrieved. They went back home, and not only was the foreign contraption hidden away, but Kexra never made any effort to return to her crashed ship.

At night, though... Sometimes at night he'd hear her, singing quietly to herself on the cot while he laid on the sofa. And somehow, despite not knowing the words, Allen knew it was a song about a soldier going home.

He knew, because of how her voice always choked up on the last line of lyric.

"Kah khet trezm ah khet zhenir dafn galzin,

Hah fahlzet pah ra, rhim'tosh'niz dafn hurit,

Poh shunat dafn bais'huurit, rhim khat daf'nevra,

Khetursh keh pos freem tallant kin ghashn'hil busit.

Khet moorm fa'basit'nitri mozin,

Khet moorm tursh khetursh keh pos bolz kin tuzit,

Khet moorm dafn te'nus takzenl lag hah,

Khet moorm dan driin kin'jusit..."

 _On the edge of the knife we live,_

 _For family and honor, everything we give,_

 _But when we have given all that we are,_

 _There is nothing like returning home._

 _The place your loved ones reside,_

 _The place where there is no need to hide,_

 _The place we will gladly die for,_

 _The place I long to go..._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

It was on the six month anniversary of Kexra's arrival that Allen found out her species wasn't affected by alcohol in the same way as humans.

His usual trip to the town on the edge of the desert a few days before had included the special purchase of a couple cases of beer and a small bottle of whiskey. Allen didn't normally drink except on holidays, and even then only enough to get pleasantly buzzed - but he had no idea if Kexra would need more or less alcohol to reach the same state.

She'd seemed excited when he showed her the drinks, and after sniffing both kinds immediately went and poured all the whiskey and several cans of beer together into a pitcher. Allen grimaced, but accepted the glass she handed him that was full of the concoction. For the rest of the evening, she would top off his drink the same time she refilled hers, and the man never refused.

Only after he was well and truly drunk, talking loudly as his companion watched with amusement, did Allen suppose she might not be able to become intoxicated at all.

At some point the night became a blur, and the next morning he woke up with a splitting headache. For some reason, Kexra had gone and piled all the blankets in the house together on the floor between the couch and the wall, making a sort of nest. It was here that Allen awoke, surprised to find himself held securely in muscular purple arms. When he tried to shift, Kexra snuffled, and started _purring._

Allen paused. "If I wasn't hungover right now, I'd be laughing over how much like a cat you're being."

That statement, even delivered in a croaky whisper, was enough to wake Kexra up, and it didn't take her long to realize how poorly Allen felt. She turned into a bundle of hovering concern, making him coffee and breakfast, getting him settled on the couch with a bowl nearby for the frequent dry-heaving, and coming over every few minutes to lightly scritch her claws through his hair (which was surprisingly pleasant).

By midday, he felt marginally better, at least enough to shuffle around the shack in an attempt to get some chores done. Kexra ended up keeping a step behind him at all times, reaching around his shorter form to do something for him if it looked like he was moving too slowly. While endearing at first, it soon became annoying.

"Y'know, I managed to work through hangovers in the past just fine on my own," he snapped at one point. Kexra's hands, where they'd been taking the dust rag from him in order to reach the high shelves, froze. She instantly pulled back, and when Allen turned and saw the carefully blank expression on her face, he winced.

"Da'tarksi," the woman said stiffly. Before Allen could protest, apologize, or even move, she'd disappeared out the door. He let himself slump back against the wall and sighed.

"Damn it."

After a long while, he reluctantly hauled himself upright to pull on his boots and go look for her. A single glance around the exterior of the shack, though, proved that she'd left the immediate area. Berating his fool self, Allen took careful steps to where the hovercraft was parked.

Well. Was supposed to be parked.

He stared dumbly at the empty space for a bit, wondering how the heck he'd missed hearing the vehicle start up and take off. Closer study of the ground, however, showed recent drag marks, and he realized Kexra must have hauled the thing far enough away the sound of its engine wouldn't make it to his hangover-stressed ears. Uncertain of whether to be grateful or not, Allen went to grab his daypack, and started walking.

Afternoon was well on its way to turning into evening when the breeze picked up. Allen squinted up at the sky, concerned at the speed with which wisps of clouds were moving west. After his many years spent living in the desert, the man knew very well what the signs of an incoming wind storm.

Unfortunately, he didn't Kexra would recognize them, or know how to handle finding shelter in what, to her, was an alien landscape.

He picked up his pace as much as his achy body would allow, soon reaching a familiar group of cacti. Allen tried very hard to ignore the implications of Kexra driving the hoverbike so close to where her ship had crashed.

Following the faint tracks onwards, it wasn't long before he had to lean to the right as he walked, fighting against the wind that wanted so much to knock him flat. Darkness was starting to descend on the desert, making his task that much harder.

A distant sound caught his attention.

Several hundred yards ahead, Kexra's familiar form stood atop a short hill, waving and shouting at him. Relieved, Allen hurried towards her. She slid down the slope to meet him, grabbing his shoulder as soon as he was close enough and pulling him into a tight hug. He let her, glad she was alright and no longer upset with him.

As soon as she set him back on his feet, Kexra led him around the hill to the hoverbike, wedged into a cleft in the rock and soil. There was just enough room to clamber past it into a cozy little shelter, where the wind couldn't get at them.

"And here I was worried you wouldn't know what to do when the storm got rolling," Allen chuckled slightly. Kexra tilted her head at him, smirking.

"Da'bas'kiriskin," she purred, pulling him against her once again.

"...I'm sorry for offending you earlier. It's just, well, humans have this bad habit of becoming grumps when they don't feel good. Or, some humans, anyway. Me included."

"Fan sun posik draan tark'kin, Allen."

He craned his head back to look up at her soft smile. "I really hope that means you forgive me."

Kexra huffed, running her claws through his hair like she had that morning. "Fa'jirnt teh fosn dan phin posik. Nurrus'tu, da'bas'kiriskin."

Her warmth and soft purring soon lulled Allen to sleep despite the wind howling over their heads.

Kexra's Daibazali:

Da'tarksi - My apologies

Da'bas'kiriskin - My dear idiot

Fan sun posik draan tark'kin - You do not need to apologize

Fa'jirnt teh fosn dan phin posik - You ask as if I could not

Nurrus'tu - Go to sleep


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

It was on the six month anniversary of Kexra's arrival that Allen realized her species wasn't affected by alcohol in the same way as humans.

On the seventh, he found out that her species was, in fact, capable of mating with his own.

And when they were nearly to the eighth, he discovered that it was indeed possible for a human to knock up an alien.

He stared at the slight bulge of Kexra's belly in shock, still trying to process the news and clutching onto a lingering hope that he'd misinterpreted her little presentation of a carved woodblock family.

"Y-you're pregnant?"

Kexra flicked her ears at him, and nodded.

Allen dropped back to sit on the cot behind him. "Oh."

She snorted, and started to put the carvings away, her motions stiff.

"...Are you okay with this?" At Allen's quiet question, she paused, and hand carefully making its way to rest on her belly.

"...Pas," Kexra said after a moment. "Da'barat talul'kin dafn'mrim." She paused, before adding with a grin, "Mrimi."

Allen slowly nodded. He'd spent enough time around Kexra to at least be familiar with the words 'yes' and 'no', even if most of what else she said what a mystery to him.

"Alright then. Human pregnancies usually last about nine months - is it more or less than that for your people?"

Kexra considered his question, then brought up her hands with a space between them. She moved them closer together, lessening the distance.

"Less time. Okay. Which may or may not matter, considering this kid's gonna be both." Allen took a moment to rub his face. "This kid. Our kid. Oh boy."

The alien sitting on his sofa snorted at him.

"Oh hush you, I never expected to be a father. Okay, so we're gonna need a crib, and baby clothes, and food, and- diapers, geez, gonna need a lot of those... Okay." He took a deep breath and stood. Kexra watched him as he moved to stand before her and kneel. "We can do this. Right?"

Smiling for the first time that morning, Kexra took his hands to place against her belly, which seemed warmer than the rest of her. "Pas. Dafn phiin."

The next six months after that included a lot of frantic preparation on Allen's part, amused observance on Kexra's, and surprises for both of them as having a mixed-blood child apparently induced strange cravings and behaviors not typical to pregnancies of either species. Still, as long as Allen didn't mention the shrieking-at-the-moon incident, and Kexra didn't laugh at his frequent panicking, they continued to get along just as well as they always had.

Kexra's Daibazali:

Pas - yes

Da'barat talul'kin dafn'mrim - I want to carry our child

Mrimi - Children

Dafn phiin - We can


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Looking back, Allen sheepishly realized Kexra must have known all along they were going to have twins. Every time he jotted down what they'd need and how much, she always managed to grab the list behind his back and double to amounts, even insisting on him making the crib larger than he initially planned.

Gazing down at the pair of tightly wrapped bundles in his arms, Allen found that he honestly didn't mind.

"What are we gonna call 'em?" He asked in a whisper. Curled around him as he held their children, Kexra purred. She'd gone through the births much more calmly than any human mother he'd ever heard off, barely making a sound as each infant slipped out with a little cascade of liquid.

"Da'barat dafn bitri nhisir'kin nitr," she murmured, leaning over to nuzzle the mop of dark hair on the nearest baby's head. Smiling at how his little girl shifted at her mother's touch, Allen stroked a finger over his son's black tufts as well.

"How about, you name our daughter, and I'll name out son," he offered. Kexra rolled her eyes, a sure sign he'd just repeated something she already said, but nodded.

"...Acxa," she said after a moment.

"Acxa." It tasted foreign on his tongue, but Allen found he liked it. "That's beautiful. As for this little guy... How about Keith?"

"Keith," Kexra agreed, grinning.

They fell silent again, studying their children with adoring eyes.

After a while, though, Kexra chuckled, attracting Allen's attention. "What? What's so funny?"

"Kolivan, Kexra, Keith." She continued to laugh quietly to herself, and Allen felt a flicker of amusement as well.

At one point during her pregnancy, Kexra had pointed to her belly, then at him, and spoke a single word: "Mosir." Then, she'd held up one of her new carvings, of an alien that looked similar to both her and 'Thace', and repeated it. After a bit of puzzling, Allen realized the word meant 'father'. From there, he learned the word for 'mother', and after asking, Kexra told him her parents were called Kolivan and Athircea.

From the way she repeated the three names, Allen assumed she was pleased by the fact they all started with the same letter.

"Hey now, what about Athircea, Allen, and Acxa?" He teased. That just caused Kexra to laugh harder.

When she finally calmed down a bit, a sly look overtook her face that put him on edge. "Tosrim pah mosrim," she said, alternating point at Acxa and Keith. Frowning, Allen looked back and forth between the siblings as well. Kexra caught his attention again with more slowly pronounced words. "Mosir. Tosir. Mrimi, srimi. Mosrim, tosrim."

Finally, the similarities clicked inside his head. "Oh! Brother and sister, right?"

"Pas. Mosrim pah tosrim." Then Kexra pointed over to where her large collection of carvings sat on a couple different shelves - in particular, the one of Thace. "Da'mosrim."

Allen felt like banging his head against a wall. "Oh. That's _your_ brother... Guess now I know why you thought it was so funny when I asked if he were your husband."

Kexra started giggling again.

Kexra's Daibazali:

Da'barat dafn bitri nhisir'kin nitr - I want us both to name one

Mosir - Father

Tosrim pah mosrim - Sister and brother

Tosir - Mother

Mrimi - Children

Srimi - Siblings


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: So who else watched Season Five and flipped the heck out over Krolia? :D_

 _Sadly, that puts the damper on my motivation to finish this story, so this will be the final chapter. But fear not, Kogane fans! Because the spark of inspiration has struck in other forms: namely, a Krolia origins story, a Koganes of Marmora AU, and a fun mix-up-mash-up story I'm so far calling Keith Goes to Kerberos. Muahaha..._

 _Anywho, I hope you all enjoyed this tale while I was still weaving it, and don't get too teary-eyed at the ending. Thanks for coming!_

 _-Tri_

Chapter Eight

"MONSTER!"

At the sound of the scream, Allen dropped what he was doing and dashed outside.

It was rare that desert backpackers would find their way onto his property, but not unheard of, seeing as he didn't bother to keep up a boundary fenceline. This was the first occasion someone had made it all the way to his house, though - and of course it happened to be when Kexra was playing outside with the twins.

"Hey, hold it!" He shouted, sprinting to get in-between the trio of terrified campers and his sword-wielding-significant-other. "Kexra! Stop!"

She growled, never taking her eyes off the newcomers. Her feet were planted in a battle stance firmly in front of where Keith and Acxa laid on their playmat. If Allen didn't know her half as well as he did, he'd never have noticed the trembling of her ears, a sure sign of the alien woman's fear.

"I promise, she won't attack if you just back away slowly," he told the campers. Of course, addressing them directly just caused the three to turn tail and flee back into the desert. Allen sighed, but didn't bother pursuing them: his first priority was to get his family back inside.

He gathered up the crying twins while Kexra continued to glare after the retreating humans. She didn't turn away until they disappeared into the distance, and even then, kept her sword close to hand.

"It'll be okay," Allen repeatedly mumbled. "They'll think it was a hallucination, or a trick, or something. It'll be okay. It will. Even if they don't convince themselves it was fake by the time they get back to civilization, no one will believe them without-" he sucked in a breath, head snapping around to stare at Kexra. "Did any of them have a camera? Did they get any pictures of you?"

Having seen both Allen's old camera and heard his description of a cell phone, Kexra shook her head.

"Okay. Okay. Everything will be fine, then. It'll be alright."

They didn't bother to put Acxa and Keith in their crib that night, but instead slept in a nest of blankets on the floor. Neither parent got much true rest, but at least the shared body heat of their little family helped keep everyone calm.

Two days later, everything was not alright.

Allen quietly called for Kexra to stay inside when he saw a moving smudge appear on the horizon. When the group of eight hikers arrived, some appearing embarrassed, others eager, he had to laughingly dismiss their tale of a purple sword-wielding desert monster.

"If you say so, dude," one of the younger girls said as she shrugged. "But the story was starting to go viral on the 'net when we came out here. You're gonna be up to your ears in monster-fans and alien believers before too long, fair warning."

"Appreciate it," Allen replied, fighting with everything he had not to let his smiling expression slip. "Just something I'll have to get used to for a while, I guess. Heh, maybe I can set up my own tourist trap if they'll all be coming out here anyway."

"Yeah, that's a good idea, man! Make some cash out of it while you can!"

Eventually, he got the group to depart, and went back inside with a groan. Kexra sat on the floor by the sofa, where she was hidden from the window's line of sight, clutching both the twins to her chest. Three pairs of eyes stared up at Allen: one solid yellow, one human but with purple irises, and one a combination of the others. He sighed.

"Well. I guess life's gonna be a bit more difficult from now on, huh? But we'll manage, you'll see, and things will go back to normal soon, I promise."

Keith and Acxa simply blinked at him, while Kexra did not look convinced. She carefully maneuvered the twins onto the sofa before reaching underneath it. Allen froze when she pulled out the device that had come from the wreckage of her ship.

"Kexra..."

"Allen," she murmured, getting to her feet. She clutched him close, nose buried in his short hair. He could feel her shaking.

His heart nearly stopped when she activated the device.

"Kexra, what- what did you do? What is-" He shut up when she placed a claw across his lips. Then, Kexra moved to where her carvings rested, the little group of four depicting their family in place of pride.

With a gentle touch, she separated them - herself and Acxa's figurines to one side, Allen and Keith's to the other.

Allen felt tears welling up in his eyes, and tried to choke out a protest. Kexra set her device down and moved to embrace him again. The four of them slept in a nest again that night.

The evening after, a spaceship landed in front of the shack.

And from then on, it was only Allen and Keith living in the desert.


End file.
